Airplane seats

is it possible to pre book your seats on a Thomas Cook flight when P & O has booked it as part of the cruise.

is it possible to pre book your seats on a Thomas Cook flight when P & O has booked it as part of the cruise.

I believe so....on my CP our flights have an 'Unavailable' button at the moment and says 'No seats selected' (too early yet) but it's a Thomas Cook flight so I'm expecting it to be bookable nearer the cruise date (from memory might say available 14 weeks prior to departure).

PS Have just checked the CP - details above are correct.

Thank you, yes mind also says no seats selected and we are flying until November.

We are flying out with Thomson next month,yes 14 weeks before you can choose your seats,be quick though even on the first morning some seats were gone,I wasn't the only keen one!

as above but on Thomson/Tui flights flights we had to pay £25 per person per a flight booking charge so if your flying both ways it £50 a person to book seats.

i believe this is standard practice on all p&o charter flights.

We are flying TC out of Manchester next Oct. It is not a dedicated P&O charter, but P&O have chartered a block of seats on some TC flights and told last month that we will be able to book seats on cruise personaliser 14 weeks ahead. Do not know about cost.

As it is not a dedicated charter we will have to pick up luggage in Malta airport.

We fly to Barbados on 9 March with TC to join Azura. We booked our seats at £25 per person. When we flew to Barbados last year with BA we did not book our seats in advance and were unable to check in on line. Luckily we were seated together but lots of couples were split up and there was a lot of upset people on the flights. Not sure if you can book in online for TC flights so paying the £50 was a way of making sure we are sitting together.

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The seat booking for charter flights open at midnight about 14 weeks before. It took me 2 hours to book our seats last time as there must have been a lot of people doing the same thing, and the system kept “crashing”.

We have managed in the past to get the extra legroom seats but you have to be quick. They are also more expensive than the standard £25 pp each way. I think they are £40 or £50 pp each way but I may be wrong.

One year the seats were released a couple of days earlier than the 14 weeks (came out on Wed instead of Friday) , so it’s worth checking - if you can stay up until midnight.

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as above but on Thomson/Tui flights flights we had to pay £25 per person per a flight booking charge so if your flying both ways it £50 a person to book seats.

 

i believe this is standard practice on all p&o charter flights.

Does anyone think this is worth the cost? It’s only a 3hr flight and seems excessive at £100 per couple return!

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Does anyone think this is worth the cost? It’s only a 3hr flight and seems excessive at £100 per couple return!

 

 

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That's really a personal choice and could depend on your circumstances eg partner is a nervous flier or if you want extra leg room. I would probably not bother for a short haul but we've always booked seats together for Caribbean flights because of the length but also because on the return overnight flight when you will probably want to drop off, at least you know who's on one side of you......... and if it's a 2-4-2 seating plan, better still as you won't have to disturb a stranger if you want to get out of your seat since as a couple you'll always be adjacent to the aisle.

Btw, £25 has been quoted - last time we booked seats I think that was for long haul and short haul was less.

Does anyone think this is worth the cost? It’s only a 3hr flight and seems excessive at £100 per couple return!

 

 

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No, it's crazy.

Couples will be spending the next week or two together but cannot be apart for a few hours.

We are flying out with Thomson next month,yes 14 weeks before you can choose your seats,be quick though even on the first morning some seats were gone,I wasn't the only keen one!

That is because you can wait up and book from midnight.

That's really a personal choice and could depend on your circumstances eg partner is a nervous flier or if you want extra leg room. I would probably not bother for a short haul but we've always booked seats together for Caribbean flights because of the length but also because on the return overnight flight when you will probably want to drop off, at least you know who's on one side of you......... and if it's a 2-4-2 seating plan, better still as you won't have to disturb a stranger if you want to get out of your seat since as a couple you'll always be adjacent to the aisle.

Btw, £25 has been quoted - last time we booked seats I think that was for long haul and short haul was less.

I agree that on a long haul it’s worth the money - we flew to LA for New Year on BA and paid £140 (£70pp) outbound for a ‘twin seat’ at the back of the plane - return was £70 (£35pp) for the same seats which was weird! But on a 12hr flight it was worth every penny to have no one else next to you

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That's really a personal choice and could depend on your circumstances eg partner is a nervous flier or if you want extra leg room. I would probably not bother for a short haul but we've always booked seats together for Caribbean flights because of the length but also because on the return overnight flight when you will probably want to drop off, at least you know who's on one side of you......... and if it's a 2-4-2 seating plan, better still as you won't have to disturb a stranger if you want to get out of your seat since as a couple you'll always be adjacent to the aisle.

Btw, £25 has been quoted - last time we booked seats I think that was for long haul and short haul was less.

Also this flight has 3 and 3 configuration but I don’t think for 3 hrs I’d be that bothered to end up on an aisle by myself

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On a long haul flight I like extra leg room because I’m tall. I really don’t mind paying extra to be comfortable.

Also this flight has 3 and 3 configuration but I don’t think for 3 hrs I’d be that bothered to end up on an aisle by myself

 

 

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I agree - that wouldn't bother me either.

Posted in error

I used to love flying, but the airline business model of "Calculated Misery" has made me hate flying. They carefully balance just how miserable an experience they can make it to force you to give them more money for what used to come as standard.

We flew Thomas Cook from Bristol to Valetta last year and refused to pay the £50 fines to sit together. In the end, we sat together. OK , there was a isle in the way on the way out, but no hardship.

Nice to see that airlines' policies to deliberatly split up families who don't pay the fine to sit toghether is being investigated: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42931091

Of course they deny doing it, "it's the computer that allocates them". They fail to add that they get the computer programmed to do it.

We had an email from P&O this morning saying we can book flight seats etc. for our one way, (we sail back to Southampton), 4th October flight out to Oceana by logging into the Thomas Cook site using our P&O booking reference. So our seats not bookable via cruise personaliser 14 weeks before as I was told by P&O and which I posted on #6 of this thread.

We have book extra legroom emergency extra seats, across the aisle, for £25pp (booking standard seats would have cost £13pp). Given the price of the whole cruise we think that booking those is worthwhile, especially as booking any seat would cost £13 which does seem OTT. The flight is 3 hours 30 mins. Separate aisle seats would not bother us, but being stuck in a cramped non aisle seat (especially if someone large sitting next to us), is what we would not like at all. Aisle seats give you a bit more elbow space and it is those that book quickly on schedule long haul flights.

Then again we are happy in a well placed inside cabin as all we use it for is to sleep and shower - everyone has their own priorities and spends money on what they want.

There is also an option to book extra luggage allowance,£18 for 5kgs and £30 for 10kgs and other options for 15 and 20 kgs. So cheaper for one to book a larger extra allowance, than a smaller amount each.

I used to love flying, but the airline business model of "Calculated Misery" has made me hate flying. They carefully balance just how miserable an experience they can make it to force you to give them more money for what used to come as standard.

 

We flew Thomas Cook from Bristol to Valetta last year and refused to pay the £50 fines to sit together. In the end, we sat together. OK , there was a isle in the way on the way out, but no hardship.

 

Nice to see that airlines' policies to deliberatly split up families who don't pay the fine to sit toghether is being investigated: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42931091

 

Of course they deny doing it, "it's the computer that allocates them". They fail to add that they get the computer programmed to do it.

If the computer allocates them, it would be quite simple to program it to seat couples and groups together. This used to be the case when in the early days of package holidays aeroplane seats were pre allocated and printed on your tickets. But then they discovered a nice little earner ........

We received an email from our TA yesterday too and have booked our seats through the Thomas Cook website.

On the Cruise Personaliser it still said seats not yet available for booking with the reference to booking from about 14 weeks prior to departure.

As I booked with TC, I wasn't surprised that it didn't reflect the booking yesterday but thought overnight that the CP would update.

However the CP still says booking 'unavailable' and 'no seats selected'! I do have flight confirmation from TC but is this what others have found too - that their CP isn't reflecting their booking status?

However the CP still says booking 'unavailable' and 'no seats selected'! I do have flight confirmation from TC but is this what others have found too - that their CP isn't reflecting their booking status?

Yes. We realised that yesterday and I have just re checked now, having seen your post.

We also went into the Thomas Cook site yesterday and, since the flight is a part charter, you can actually go through their booking system to book the flight we are booked on. We then proceeded to 'book your seat' and saw that both our seats are marked with a cross (which means someone has already booked them). I have just re checked that now as well and our seats are still marked with a cross, so I assume it is just P&O's website. Our email yesterday was from P&O and we had to use the P&O booking reference to book the seats, so would seem OK to me.

If you want to ring P&O can you post their reply here please? I am too busy to ring P&O at present and not really worried about it. I did think it was strange that I was told the seats would be bookable via the cruise personaliser, when it is only a part charter.

We haven't received an email from anywhere but the CP states that we have to book seats with Thomas Cook airlines direct using our booking ref. I was going to do this 14 weeks prior to departure date but after reading this thread decided to do it today. Also booked excess baggage with them and received immediate confirmation. CP still showing unavailable but I'm not really concerned about that. I'm annoyed that if I hadn't read this thread I would be oblivious to the fact that seats were already being booked and if I had waited until the time P&O advised then I might have been unlucky. Not good enough really.

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Jaywader

Our email came in early yesterday, but we booked direct with P&O. Our main reason to book direct is that we can then talk direct to the cruise company and we will get any info direct from them rather than wait until an agent gets around to telling us. I suspect many people who booked through an agent, which you may have done, could be a lot longer waiting for the notification. That is how it works.

If you booked direct with P&O and have not got anything about it, then yes I would be very miffed. There could be other criteria regards priority for email notification though - perhaps type or date of booking or perhaps alphabetical. We booked some time back at select price and our name comes fairly early in the alphabet. I assume you have a summer season cruise booked, which is what we have.

Tring

I understand there could be several reasons I have not had an email. That is not what miffs me a bit. Every flight I have taken previously I have known when lines will be open for reservation of seats and in most cases I will be blocked from doing this until after midnight on the appropriate date. Usually about 12 to 14 weeks prior to flying.

My flight with Thomas Cook is not until October but I was able to book my seats today. As I mentioned in my earlier post I would not have known they were open for booking if I hadn't read this thread where another person has posted that they have booked seats for the same cruise in October.

I think that irrespective of who you book with or how you book the seats, everyone on that same flight should have exactly the same chance of getting the seats they want.

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